Preboring of standard wooden crossties is a practice in the railroad industry which has received varying degrees of acceptance due to cost and accuracy of the historical operations. Most prior art applications of preboring have been made at tie treatment plants to new ties, after requiring reboring during installation of the crosstie at the job site.
Boring machines commonly in use for boring railway ties are gang arrangements of single boring spindles. Referencing of the crosstie was limited to end gauge reference and single stops to position ties at the boring heads. In general, all known boring machines and operations have been unable to consistently produce gauge accuracy acceptable to railroad construction standards on a productive basis.